BIOGRAPHY
Wes Sherman has been an artist for over 30 years. In that time, he’s had 50 solo exhibitions and has been included in hundreds of group exhibitions in the US and in Europe. He has also published a number of books, including Protein in Your Painting, This Is True and Penumbra.
Sherman was the Curator and Chair of Exhibitions at the Center for Contemporary Art in Bedminster, NJ. He has been a frequent visiting artist at universities and schools and regularly leads art programs for organizations and clubs.
Sherman is an adjunct professor, teaching at William Paterson University and Raritan Valley Community College. He received his MFA at Rutgers University, where he studied with his mentor Tom Nozkowski.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I have always enjoyed allegorical stories with a simple narrative and a hidden or camouflaged meaning. As I reflect on my work, I can see the influence of this literary tool. My paintings employ the recognizable language of landscapes—a horizon line, sky, water, trees—to express a straight-forward narrative. Other, more complex ideas are entwined in the scene and are intended to be visible only upon close viewing. In this way, the paintings are a sort of visual allegory, expressing a direct, often visually appealing, landscape narrative with a secondary story of marks and symbols—something like personal hieroglyphics—woven through it. These “hieroglyphics” create a distraction or interruption of the main narrative and are often repeated, form a pattern, or recur across paintings. While these secondary stories engage with a variety of concepts, displacement is a recurring theme and a consistent through line across my work.
March 2025
PAST STATEMENTS
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“In the woods, we return to reason and faith.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature,” 1836
The relationship I have to the nature, and my desire for an urban and rural landscape is something I often think about. In a very transcendental—Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman— sort of way, I aspire for a reflective understanding of our relationship to nature. I believe we have an Arcadian ideal of nature, but our very precepts often taint the ideal. Just take note of any land left untouched: in a couple of years nature will reclaim it, and with enough time, human presence on the land will disappear. We have a desire to control and protect the land. We also have a need to retreat to and flee from nature. The combined savagery and enlightened quietness of nature produces a very Dionysian and Apollonian sphere. For me, these paintings reflect my own conflicting experiences of the last 10 years, my rush to move to New York City, and my recent retreat to a new lake cabin in northern New Jersey. This new body of work is a reflection of the many dualistic ideas I struggle with from time to time.
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I am interested in the relationship between abstraction and landscape painting. Norbert Wolf has argued in an essay about landscape painting that this genre stands “closest to pure painting in its concentration on color and light.” I believe that in many ways abstraction owes a lot to this genre and how it is also interested in the nature of color and light.
I also work from the canon of painting history. I believe that we have always borrowed from the past to redefine or rediscover our existence. I start with a painting from the canon and then begin to abstract from it until I find something new about color, space, and paint. Within my work I try to master the use of the medium, but more importantly I try to pick work from the canon of history so that when I come to the end of a painting I feel I have discovered what the canon painting and the process of making a new painting have to offer. Art is not a decoration but a declaration of ones self-understanding of place in this world. -
I paint about painting and the nature of painting. It is neither a grand nor uncommon act. Painting is one of the earliest acts of human beings; we paint to define our lives and to put our existence into context with nature.
The act of painting is a search for meaning within nature’s sublime. This probing for self-meaning is at the heart of the sublime and the history of painting. The painter is constantly trying to reason a way into nature, while the philosopher is trying to reason a way out of nature. Painters who get their hands messy with the mud of paint and interact with the history of painting will by the natural act of painting look for the spiritual purity, grandeur, or excellence that is hidden in nature’s sublime. -
“You’re wavered between two – between drawing and color, between the meticulous phlegm and stern resolve of the old German masters and the dazzling ardor and happy abundance of the Italians. You’ve tried to imitate Holbein and Titian, or Dürer and Veronese, at the same time. It was certainly a magnificent ambition, but what’s happened?" – Honore de Balzac, “The Unknown Masterpiece,” 1831
Over the years I have, in a sense, “collected” a group of paintings and painters. This mental collection has become a kind of inner measuring stick for me. My mental art collection directs the choices I make from a painting’s start to its finish and frames my view of a painting’s success or failure.
In Walter Benjamin’s short essay “Unpacking My Library,” he ruminates on his collection of books as he unpacks them. He finds himself, as he holds each book, inspired by the potential for knowledge and creativity that can be gained through each. It is not so important to Benjamin, as a collector of books, that he has read the majority of books in his library, but that he owns the books and that each represents great potential. He illustrates this idea of collecting and the potential for knowledge by saying that when a collector “holds” the book “in his hands,” he “seems to be seeing through” the book and into its “distant past as though inspired.” In a similar way, I too have a collection of artists that I frequently “unpack” and consider and become inspired by; among them Caravaggio, Lasker, Marden, Matisse, Nozkowski, and Vermeer. Like Benjamin, it is not so important that I fully understand the work of each artist but that I live with each in the same intimate way a collector lives with any collection: holding each artist’s images and ideas up for study, reflection, and for inspiration.
When I step into the studio each day I draw upon the artists I’m currently studying and those already forming my “mental art collection.” Because I am always learning, during the painting process my artistic references are in flux and can change. While I am painting I may consider the relationship that one artist has to another or how I like one aspect of a painting from each of these artists. I also think about how these artists have interacted with the heritage of which they have now become a part. For example, I have considered how the hand of Christ in Caravaggio’s painting “The Calling of St. Matthew” is similar to the hand of Adam painted by Michelangelo in “The Creation of Adam” portion of the Sistine Ceiling. I consider issues like these as I paint and try to weave them in as imagery or as referential aspects of my paintings.
In his book entitled Shakespeare: the Invention of the Human, Harold Bloom writes, “we keep returning to Shakespeare because we need him; no one else gives us so much of the world most of us take to be fact.” Bloom also claims that writing has been in a decline ever since Shakespeare, and that every character developed since Shakespeare is derived from one of his characters, with Hamlet being the greatest of all characters. While I am not ready to make any kind of similar definitive statement about painting (though there are some similarities that could be drawn from the work of Michelangelo), I am sympathetic to the idea that we are all influenced by past masterpieces, and that as painters we are perpetually recycling the same ideas or “characters” in our work. -
“You’re wavered between two – between drawing and color, between the meticulous phlegm and stern resolve of the old German masters and the dazzling ardor and happy abundance of the Italians. You’ve tried to imitate Holbein and Titian, or Dürer and Veronese, at the same time. It was certainly a magnificent ambition, but what’s happened?" – Honore de Balzac, “The Unknown Masterpiece,” 1831
Over the years I have, in a sense, “collected” a group of paintings and painters. This mental collection has become a kind of inner measuring stick for me. My mental art collection directs the choices I make from a painting’s start to its finish and frames my view of a painting’s success or failure.
In Walter Benjamin’s short essay “Unpacking My Library,” he ruminates on his collection of books as he unpacks them. He finds himself, as he holds each book, inspired by the potential for knowledge and creativity that can be gained through each. It is not so important to Benjamin, as a collector of books, that he has read the majority of books in his library, but that he owns the books and that each represents great potential. He illustrates this idea of collecting and the potential for knowledge by saying that when a collector “holds” the book “in his hands,” he “seems to be seeing through” the book and into its “distant past as though inspired.” In a similar way, I too have a collection of artists that I frequently “unpack” and consider and become inspired by; among them Caravaggio, Lasker, Marden, Matisse, Nozkowski, and Vermeer. Like Benjamin, it is not so important that I fully understand the work of each artist but that I live with each in the same intimate way a collector lives with any collection: holding each artist’s images and ideas up for study, reflection, and for inspiration.
When I step into the studio each day I draw upon the artists I’m currently studying and those already forming my “mental art collection.” Because I am always learning, during the painting process my artistic references are in flux and can change. While I am painting I may consider the relationship that one artist has to another or how I like one aspect of a painting from each of these artists. I also think about how these artists have interacted with the heritage of which they have now become a part. For example, I have considered how the hand of Christ in Caravaggio’s painting “The Calling of St. Matthew” is similar to the hand of Adam painted by Michelangelo in “The Creation of Adam” portion of the Sistine Ceiling. I consider issues like these as I paint and try to weave them in as imagery or as referential aspects of my paintings.
In his book entitled Shakespeare: the Invention of the Human, Harold Bloom writes, “we keep returning to Shakespeare because we need him; no one else gives us so much of the world most of us take to be fact.” Bloom also claims that writing has been in a decline ever since Shakespeare, and that every character developed since Shakespeare is derived from one of his characters, with Hamlet being the greatest of all characters. While I am not ready to make any kind of similar definitive statement about painting (though there are some similarities that could be drawn from the work of Michelangelo), I am sympathetic to the idea that we are all influenced by past masterpieces, and that as painters we are perpetually recycling the same ideas or “characters” in our work.
EXHIBITIONS
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2025
14C Art Fair, Solo booth (Jersey City, NJ)
The Center for Contemporary Art (Bedminster, NJ)
Mercer College (Trenton, NJ)
2024
M Galleries — Fellowship (Basking Ridge, NJ)
2023
14C Art Fair, Solo booth (Jersey City, NJ)
Hudson County Community College (Jersey City, NJ)
“Manifestation,” introducing artist Isabell Villacia, M Galleries — Fellowship (Basking Ridge, NJ)
2022
“Now and Then,” M Galleries (Washington, NJ)
“Horizon,” Pictor Gallery (New York, NY)
2021
Warren County Community College (Washington, NJ)
K. James Gallery (New Jersey)
2019
Kirby Gallery at St Bernard's School (Far Hills, NJ)
2018
New Jersey Repertory Company Gallery, Aug-Sept. (Long Branch, NJ)
The Center for Contemporary Art, Sept.-Oct. (Bedminster, NJ)
2017
Hunterdon Art Museum, Jan-Apr. (Clinton, NJ)
J. Cacciola Gallery W, (Bernardsville, NJ)
Jeff Williams Gallery, Sept.-Oct. (Nashville, TN)
2016
Raritan Valley Community College, Oct. (New Jersey)
2015
View Art Center, Old Forge, Sept.-Nov. (New York)
Warren County Library Art Projects
2014
Hermanworks (Nashville, TN)
Installation with Organ at Grace Church (Newark, NJ)
Rahway Gallery (Rahway, NJ)
Sagamore Gallery at Great Camp Sagamore (Raquette Lake, NY)
Johnson & Johnson World Headquarters (New Brunswick, NJ)
2013
Hermanworks (Nashville, TN)
2012
PTC Therapeutics (South Plainfield, NJ)
Installation with Organ at Grace Church (Newark, NJ)
The Center for Contemporary Art (Bedminster, NJ)
2011
Trahern Gallery, Austin Peay State University (Clarksville, TN)
Slocumb Galleries, East Tennessee State University (Johnson City, TN)
2009
Parish Hall Gallery (Summit, NJ)
2007
The Arts Company (Nashville, TN)
Tall Grass Art Association (Park Forest, IL)
Domo Gallery (Summit, NJ)
2006
Parish Hall Gallery (Summit, NJ)
Freed–Hardeman University (Henderson, TN)
Baumgartner Gallery (New York City)
The Arts Company (Nashville, TN)
2005
CRN Gallery (Chicago, IL)
33 Collective (Chicago IL)
The Arts Company (Nashville, TN)
2004
Seton Memorial Gallery (New Brunswick, NJ)
2003
The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum Café
Hammond Substation #9 (Hammond, IN)
2002
Calumet College of St. Joseph (East Chicago, IL)
Salon 101 (Muster, IN)
Valparaiso University (Valparaiso, IN)
Clean, Well Lighted Place (Flemington, NJ)
1998
Bongo Java Coffee House (Nashville, TN)
Word Publishing (Nashville, TN)
1997
Dickson County Public Library (Dickson, TN)
Hickman County Public Library (Centerville, TN)
1995
The Law Office of N. Countney Hollins (Nashville, TN)
The Art Store (Nashville, TN)
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2025
The Center for Contemporary Art (Bedminster, NJ)
ChaShaMa Gallery (Matawan, NJ)
2024
Kelly Adirondack Center (Niskayuna, NJ)
The Art Grind (Danville, PA)
“Rox:” M Galleries (Washington, NJ)
2023
“Sonder:” M Galleries (Washington, NJ)
"Today I Woke Up on Stage:" Bloomsburg University (Bloomsburg, PA)
2022
“Twenty20:” M Galleries (Washington, NJ)
“Menacing Nature:” Rotunda Gallery (Metuchen NJ)
“Day on Earth:” Sala 752 (Zaczernie, Poland)
“20twenty:” ASC Lambeth Court House Project Space (London, England)
“Today I Woke Up on Stage:” M Galleries, TNJ Collective (Washington, NJ)
“Plastic:” M Galleries, Co11ective (Washington, NJ)
2021
Kirk Hopper Fine Art, (Dallas, TX)
Alfa Art Gallery (New Brunswick, NJ)
2020
J. Cacciola Gallery W, (three-person exhibition with Julie Friedman and Georganna Lenssen) (Bernardsville, NJ)
2019
William Patterson University (Wayne, NJ)
2018
William Patterson University (Wayne, NJ)
Raritan Valley College (Branchburg, NJ)
Brookdale Collage (Lincroft, NJ)
2017
The Center for Contemporary Art (Bedminster, NJ)
Raritan Valley College (Branchburg, NJ)
2016
”Grand Vista” Noyes Museum (Oceanville, New Jersey) (curator Danielle Wolfrum)
J. Cacciola Gallery W (Bernardsville, NJ)
2015
William Patterson University (Wayne, NJ)
Raritan Valley College (Branchburg, NJ)
Brookdale College (Lincroft, NJ)
2014
Mikhail Zakin Gallery (The Art School at Old Church) (Demarest, NJ)
2013
Alfa Art Gallery (New Brunswick, NJ)
The Center for Contemporary Art (Bedminster, NJ)
Raritan Valley College (Branchburg, NJ)
Brookdale College (Lincroft, NJ)
“Rites of Spring,” Gallery at 14 Maple, Morris Arts (Morristown, NJ)
2012
Studio 25 (Red Bank, NJ)
Noyes Musuem of Art (Oceanville, NJ)
Art Guild New Jersey (Rahway, NJ)
Raritan Valley College (Branchburg, NJ)
The Center for Contemporary Art (Bedminster, NJ)
2011
John C. Hutcheson Gallery, Lipscomb University (Nashville, TN)
HUMUS: A three person show with Gary Stephan and Judy Simonian
Alfa Art Gallery (New Brunswick, NJ):
A three person show with Marsha Goldberg and Larry McKim
Visual Art Center of New Jersey (Summit, NJ)
Alfa Art Gallery (New Brunswick, NJ)
Raritan Valley College (Branchburg, NJ)
2010
The Monmouth Museum (Lincroft, NJ)
Groundswell Community Mural Project (Brooklyn, NY)
John C. Hutcheson Gallery, Lipscomb University (Nashville, TN)
Alfa Art Gallery (New Brunswick, NJ)
Raritan Valley College (Branchburg , NJ)
2009
”Jettison: New Ideas in Abstraction:” Trahern Gallery, Austin Peay State University (Clarksville, TN)
“Naught and Nice:” Rabbet Gallery (New Brunswick, NJ)
“Undercover: Disguise & Deception in (some) Contemporary Art:” Arts Guild of Rahway (Rahway, NJ)
Curator: Donna Gustafson
Brookdale College (Lincroft, NJ)
Raritan Valley College (Branchburg, NJ)
2008
VAPA Gallery, Raritan Valley College (Somerville, NJ)
Accola Contemporary (New York City)
Raritan Valley College (Branchburg, NJ)
65Grand Gallery (Chicago, IL)
2007
Raritan Valley College (Branchburg, NJ)
Baumgartner Gallery (New York City)
Domo Gallery (Summit, NJ)
The Arts Company (Nashville, TN)
2006
Baumgartner Gallery (New York City)
Visual Arts Center of New Jersey (Summit, NJ)
Domo Gallery (Summit, NJ)
Brookdale College (Lincroft, NJ)
Raritan Valley College (Branchburg, NJ)
2005
Domo Gallery (Summit, NJ) (including: Lasker, Nozkowski & Stephan)
Baumgartner Gallery (New York City)
Hunterdon Museum of Art (Clinton, NJ)
Domo Gallery (Summit, NJ)
Brookdale College (Lincroft, NJ)
Raritan Valley College (Branchburg, NJ)
2004
CRN Gallery (Chicago, IL)
Aguirre Duron Gallery (Chicago, IL)
Anne Reid Gallery (Princeton, NJ)
Geoff Young Gallery (Great Barrington, MA)
The Arts Gallery (Nashville, TN)
Raritan Valley College (Branchburg, NJ)
2003
Galerie Lelong (New York City)
Zeitgeist Gallery (Nashville, TN)
Union Street Gallery, Chicago Heights (Chicago, IL)
Bill Maynes Gallery (New York City)
Rutgers University, Mason Gross Gallery (New Brunswick, NJ)
Hunter University, Time Square Gallery (New York City)
2002
Fugitive Art Center (Nashville, TN)
Sperone Westwater Gallery (New York City)
Rutgers University, Mason Gross Gallery (New Brunswick, NJ)
2001
Sara Meltzer Gallery (New York City)
The Green Tie Affair, The Environmental Council (Nashville, TN)
Rutgers University, Mason Gross Gallery (New Brunswick, NJ)
Prestige Fine Arts Gallery (Nashville, TN)
2000
Lipscomb University (Nashville, TN)
Zeitgeist Gallery (Nashville, TN)
The Green Tie Affair, The Environmental Council (Nashville, TN)
Prestige Fine Arts Gallery (Nashville, TN)
1999
Watkins School of Art (Nashville, TN)
The Arts Company (Nashville, TN)
Prestige Fine Arts Gallery (Nashville, TN)
1998
The Jewish Community Center (Nashville, TN)
Celebration ’98 Centennial Art Center (Nashville, TN)
Outside the Lines (Nashville, TN)
East Hickman Art Show (Centerville, TN)
Prestige Fine Arts Gallery (Nashville, TN)
1997
Tennessee Art League (Nashville, TN)
1996
Central South Art Exhibition, The Parthenon–Centennial Park (Nashville, TN)
Juried by W. A. Herring
Tennessee Art League (Nashville, TN)
The Collector’s Gallery (Nashville, TN)
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2025
Pro Artist Jersey City (Jersey City, NJ)
“Open Air/Open Space:” Cultural & Heritage Commission (Somerville, NJ)
2023
Mercer County Community College (West Windsor, NJ)
2022
Pro Art NJ: Portfolio Review and exhibition (Jersey City, NJ)
2020
“20-20:” co-curated with John Yau at The Center for Contemporary Art (Bedminster, NJ)
2019
Amy Faris: “Memory and the Explorer” at The Center for Contemporary Art (Bedminster, NJ)
Bascha Mon: “New Land” at The Center for Contemporary Art (Bedminster, NJ)
2017
“Synthesizing Nature,” co-curated with Cory E. Card. Exhibited at View (Old Forge, NY) and The Center for Contemporary Art (Bedminster, NJ)
Lucas Kelley: “Last First Dance” at The Center for Contemporary Art (Bedminster, NJ)
2016
“Nature:” art originating with ideas from nature (Katrina Bello, Jessica Demcsak, Jason Middlebrook, Naomi Reis, and Ben Suga)
2015
“Plus One:” painters inviting another artist to pair up like a diptych. September 11–October 24, The Center for Contemporary Art, (Bedminster, NJ)
Suzanne Joelson + Harry Roseman; Valeri Larko + Jane Dickson; Tom MGlynn + Jim Osman; Darren McManus + Trygve Faste; Ilse Murdock + James Benjamin Franklin; Sylvia Plimack Mangold + Catherine Murphy; Hanneline Rogeberg + Suzanne McClelland; Terry Thacker + Matt Christy
Juror for Members Group show at Watchung Arts Center
Jay Sullivan: “The Emotional Core of Objects,” April 6–May 23, The Center for Contemporary Art (Bedminster, NJ)
2014
“Soft:” Elisa D’Arrigo, Jeff Hand, Derick Melander, and Lucy White. March 31–May 31, The Center for Contemporary Art (Bedminster, NJ)
Juror for 25th Annual NJ Small Works Show at Mikhail Zakin Gallery. May 19–June 6, The Art School at Old Church (Demarest, NJ)
2013
Rudolph Serra: “Ceramics,” April 5–June 8, The Center for Contemporary Art (Bedminster, NJ)
Martha Clippinger: “Odds and Ends,” April 5–June 8, The Center for Contemporary Art (Bedminster, NJ)
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2018
Zimmerli Art Museum (New Brunswick, NJ)
2015
Zimmerli Art Museum (New Brunswick, NJ)
2014
Cheekwood Museum (Nashville, TN)
2012
Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ)
2011
Lipscomb University (Nashville, TN)
Austin Peay State University (Clarksville, TN)
2010
Temple University, Tyler School of Art (Philadelphia, PA)
Brookdale Community College (Lincroft, NJ)
2007
Watkins College of Art and Design (Nashville, TN)
2006
Freed-Hardeman University (Henderson, TN)
2005
Hunterdon Contemporary Art Museum (Clinton, NJ)
2004
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (Philadelphia, PA)
2002
Calumet College (East Chicago, IL)
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2018
Sponsored by Guerrilla Painter and Judson’s Art Outfitters, 2018-present (LaPorte, CO)
2016
Representation with J Cacciola Gallery W, 2016-present (Bernardsville, NJ)
2013
Representation with Hermanworks, 2013-present (Nashville, TN)
2011
Fellowship for Painting, New Jersey State Council on the Arts
New Jersey Art Salon Best of Show (New Brunswick, NJ)
2009
National Academy Museum 185th Annual Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary American Art — Nomination (New York, NY)
2005
The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation — Nomination (New York, NY)
2003
The Space Program of the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation — Alternate (New York, NY)
Andrew W. Mellon Colloquium, Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum (New Brunswick, NJ)
2002
Ta/Ga Competitiveness Pool Funds Award, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ)
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Lipscomb University (Nashville, TN)
Hermanworks (Nashville, TN)
Tall Grass Art Association (Park Forest, IL)
Hunterdon Art Museum (Cliton, NJ)
Dream Catchers (Greenwood Valley, CO)
Pinnacle Bank (Nashville, TN)
ETC Management (Nashville, TN)
First Tennessee Bank (Nashville, TN)
RESUME
Bachelor of Science from Lipscomb University (Nashville, TN) 1991
Masters of Fine Arts from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (New Brunswick, NJ) 2003
Education
Wes Sherman with mentor Tom Nozkowski, 2018.
Adjunct Professor at William Patterson University, Raritan Valley College, and Brookdale College (2003-present)
Exhibition Committee Chair at The Center for Contemporary Art in Bedminster, New Jersey (2012-present)
Trustee at The Center for Contemporary Art in Bedminster, New Jersey (2013-2014)
Coordinator of Summer Educational Programs and lecturer at The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum (2002-present)
Committee Member for TAAG (Teaching Artists Advisory Group) at Rutgers University and The Zimmerli Art Museum (2015)
Studio Assistant for Gary Stephen (2003-2005)
Teaching Assistant in the Department of Visual Arts, Mason Gross School of Visual Arts, Rutgers University (2001-2003)
Art Teacher, Nashville Christian Schools, Nashville, TN (1998-2000)
Employment
PUBLICATIONS